Tower of Soot
It has been said that dragon civilization arose first of all on the world of Fletnern. Starting as hunting groups and growing into herd masters, the dragons had a very difficult environment to overcome. The dragon “ranchers” eventually discovered that there was something wrong with their “cattle” (dinosaurs and their predecessors). Any herds near the “Tower of Soot” would become unruly and eventually could become deranged. They also noticed that the little wild life near the Tower was not only crazed, but also wildly developed, in fact mutated. The Tower of Soot was a black mesa that rose about two hundred feet above the desert. It was made of an odd, but not exotic appearing black stone and served as an easy location marker. There was also water near it from time to time, allowing some plants to grow. While the ranchers began to avoid the cursed area, the more scholarly dragons decided to investigate. At first, the researchers fell to the insanity which had plagued the dumb animals. As they studied it from a far and began to study small pieces of it back in their laboratories, they began to change. Frequently, illnesses developed with gross physical symptoms, such as lesions or bone distortion. The research also showed that some of the wildlife that had lived near the mesa had grown into huge and monstrous creatures. The decision was made that the Tower of Soot was too dangerous and must be gotten rid of. The dragons did not wish to throw it in the ocean for fear of polluting their supply of fish. Dozens of scouts were sent out to locate a land, outside of Seahmock Palatu (Sulnuun), where the dragons could move the mesa. While the scouts explored the world beyond their shores for the first time, those who remained behind puzzled with how to move a small mountain of stone. Through the use of some rudimentary magic and the incredible physical power of the dinosaur herds, the dragons began to dismantle the mesa into movable chunks. Of the scouts who returned, some told stories of a land wedged between two ranges of mountains. If the Tower of Soot could be stored there, it would be kept away from both dragons and their prey. Great ships were crafted at that distant land and sailed back to Seahmock Palatu where the pieces of the mountain waited. It took decades (at least fifty years) to tear down and move the Tower of Soot, but eventually it was done. In the aftermath of the project, a great many of the dragons, drakes and prey animals that were involved in the project were left behind on that other continent to “protect” the Tower. In fact, they were considered to be infected by the curses and left there to avoid any plague of insanity that they might carry. It should not be surprising that the Tower of Soot was moved to Koaluckssie. The engineers were not very careful once the mesa was off Seahmock Palatu, and pieces of the rock were left across Koaluckssie. Where the dragons had evolved to be somewhat resistant to the curses of the Tower of Soot, the residents of Koaluckssie were not. In a short period of time, they began to mutate and formed the beast races known today. The tower continues to have an effect on them, and huge monstrous beasts are still born of the relatively “normal” beast men today. Many scholars believe that the Tower of Soot created the beastmen (centaurs, minotaurs, etc.), but this is not true. The beastmen existed before the Tower arrived. The Tower has further mutated the beastmen of Koaluckssie, including the issues of enormous size or having some manner of obvious physical difference when compared to the rest of their race.Category:Legends Category:Endless Dungeon